AMD Radeon Pro W5700X vs NVIDIA P102-100 Comparison

NVIDIA P102-100 and AMD Radeon Pro W5700X are both end-of-life workstation-class GPUs, but benchmark data shows they are not interchangeable. The NVIDIA P102-100 holds a decisive performance lead in the shared compute tests, while the AMD card offers a far larger memory pool and a unique feature set, making the choice dependent on workload priorities rather than raw speed alone.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA P102-100 wins both shared benchmark tests. In Geekbench OpenCL, the NVIDIA card scores 49,602 against the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X’s 43,810, a 13.2% advantage. The gap widens dramatically in Geekbench Vulkan, where the NVIDIA P102-100 reaches 67,454 versus the AMD’s 45,246 — a 49.1% lead. This is a massive margin in the Vulkan API, indicating architectural efficiency that the RDNA 1.0 part cannot match in this workload.

The averages tell a similar story. The NVIDIA P102-100 posts an average benchmark score of 58,528, which places it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X averages 54,828, sitting in the 87th percentile. While the percentile difference is only one point, the raw average gap is roughly 6.7% in favor of NVIDIA. The AMD card’s nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 (average 54,247, deltaPct 1.1%) and the RTX 4080 SUPER (54,209, deltaPct 1.1%), meaning the Radeon Pro W5700X is closely matched with those high-end consumer parts in aggregate score. The NVIDIA P102-100’s nearest rival is the AMD Radeon PRO V710 (58,657, deltaPct -0.2%), putting it essentially at parity with that professional card.

The per-test results reinforce the pattern. In OpenCL, the NVIDIA card’s 13.2% edge is substantial but not overwhelming. In Vulkan, the 49.1% delta is a rout. The NVIDIA P102-100’s Vulkan score of 67,454 is not only higher than the AMD’s 45,246 but also represents the strongest single benchmark result for either card. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X does have a Geekbench Metal score of 75,427, which is the highest individual score in the entire dataset, but since the NVIDIA card has no Metal result, this cannot be compared directly. For any user relying on OpenCL or Vulkan, the data points firmly to the NVIDIA P102-100.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA P102-100 wins on compute performance in the two APIs where both cards were tested. Its 49.1% Vulkan advantage is the standout result, suggesting that applications built on Vulkan will see nearly 1.5 times the performance on the NVIDIA card. The OpenCL lead of 13.2% is smaller but still consistent. For compute-heavy tasks that use these cross-platform APIs, the NVIDIA P102-100 is the clear choice based on the numbers.

The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X wins in areas not covered by the head-to-head benchmarks. It has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory versus the NVIDIA card’s 5 GB of GDDR5X. That 11 GB difference is enormous for workloads that require large datasets or high-resolution textures to reside in VRAM. The AMD card’s memory bandwidth is slightly higher at 448.0 GB/s versus 440.3 GB/s, a marginal 1.7% difference that is unlikely to matter in practice. The AMD card also supports a 2:1 FP16 ratio, delivering 20.89 TFLOPS of half-precision compute, while the NVIDIA P102-100’s FP16 performance is a minuscule 168.3 GFLOPS (1:64). For machine learning inference or other FP16-accelerated workloads, the AMD card has a massive theoretical advantage.

The AMD card also offers display outputs (1x HDMI 2.0b and 4x Thunderbolt), while the NVIDIA P102-100 has no outputs at all. This makes the AMD card usable as a display adapter, whereas the NVIDIA part is strictly a compute device. The AMD card’s lower TDP of 205 W versus 250 W is another practical win, as is its suggested PSU requirement of 550 W versus 600 W. The AMD card is also built on a smaller 7 nm process versus 16 nm, which contributes to its efficiency.

The Verdict

Choose the NVIDIA P102-100 if your priority is raw compute performance in OpenCL or Vulkan. The data shows a 13.2% lead in OpenCL and a 49.1% lead in Vulkan, with a higher average benchmark score (58,528 vs 54,828) and a higher percentile rank (88th vs 87th). This card is also physically shorter at 267 mm versus 305 mm, making it easier to fit in compact chassis. Its dual-slot design and 2x 8-pin power connectors are standard, and its 250 W TDP is manageable. However, be aware of its 5 GB memory limit and complete lack of display outputs — this is a pure compute accelerator.

Choose the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X if you need memory capacity, display connectivity, or FP16 performance. The 16 GB GDDR6 frame buffer is over three times larger than the NVIDIA card’s 5 GB, which is decisive for large models or high-resolution rendering. The 20.89 TFLOPS FP16 throughput is over 100 times the NVIDIA card’s FP16 figure, making it the obvious pick for half-precision workloads. The 4x Thunderbolt outputs and HDMI port also make it a viable workstation card for visual tasks. Its 205 W TDP and 550 W suggested PSU are lower than the NVIDIA card’s requirements. The trade-off is clear: you sacrifice 13-49% compute performance in OpenCL/Vulkan for memory and features.

For most users, the NVIDIA P102-100 is the better buy based purely on benchmark scores. The 49.1% Vulkan win is too large to ignore, and its average score is 6.7% higher. But for those whose workloads exceed 5 GB of VRAM or rely on FP16, the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X is the only viable option despite its lower compute scores.

FAQ

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA P102-100 averages 58,528, while the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X averages 54,828. The NVIDIA card is 6.7% higher.

Q: How big is the Vulkan performance gap?

A: The NVIDIA P102-100 scores 67,454 in Geekbench Vulkan, compared to 45,246 for the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X, a 49.1% advantage for NVIDIA.

Q: Does the AMD card have any benchmark where it wins?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X has a Geekbench Metal score of 75,427, which is its highest result, but the NVIDIA P102-100 has no Metal benchmark to compare against.

Q: What is the memory capacity difference?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X has 16 GB of GDDR6, while the NVIDIA P102-100 has 5 GB of GDDR5X. The AMD card offers 11 GB more memory.

Q: Can either card output video?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X has 1x HDMI 2.0b and 4x Thunderbolt outputs. The NVIDIA P102-100 has no display outputs.

Q: Which card has lower power requirements?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X has a 205 W TDP and 550 W suggested PSU, while the NVIDIA P102-100 has a 250 W TDP and 600 W suggested PSU.

Architecture Differences

The two cards are built on fundamentally different architectures. The NVIDIA P102-100 uses the GP102 chip with the Pascal architecture, fabricated on TSMC’s 16 nm process. It contains 11,800 million transistors on a 471 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 25.1 million per mm². The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X uses the Navi 10 chip with RDNA 1.0 architecture, built on TSMC’s 7 nm process. It packs 10,300 million transistors into a 251 mm² die, achieving a density of 41.0 million per mm². The smaller process node allows AMD to fit nearly as many transistors in half the die area.

The compute configurations differ significantly. The NVIDIA card has 3,200 shading units, 200 texture mapping units, and 80 ROPs. The AMD card has 2,560 shading units, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. Despite fewer units, the AMD card achieves comparable throughput due to higher peak clocks: its boost clock is 2040 MHz versus 1683 MHz for NVIDIA. This results in near-identical FP32 performance: 10.77 TFLOPS for NVIDIA and 10.44 TFLOPS for AMD. The pixel rate is also close (134.6 GPixel/s for NVIDIA vs 130.6 GPixel/s for AMD), as is texture rate (336.6 GTexel/s vs 326.4 GTexel/s).

Memory architecture is another major divergence. The NVIDIA P102-100 uses a 320-bit bus with GDDR5X, while the AMD card uses a 256-bit bus with GDDR6. The NVIDIA card’s memory clock is 1376 MHz (11 Gbps effective), while AMD’s is 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). These differences net out to nearly identical bandwidth: 440.3 GB/s for NVIDIA and 448.0 GB/s for AMD. The AMD card’s FP16 capability is dramatically different, supporting 20.89 TFLOPS at a 2:1 ratio, whereas the NVIDIA card only achieves 168.3 GFLOPS at a 1:64 ratio.

Both cards support DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. Neither has ray tracing cores or tensor cores. The NVIDIA card uses a PCIe 1.0 x4 bus interface, which is a severe bottleneck, while the AMD card uses Apple MPX, a proprietary interface for Mac Pro systems. The NVIDIA card is a dual-slot design measuring 267 mm, while the AMD card is a quad-slot design measuring 305 mm.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA P102-100 | AMD Radeon Pro W5700X |

|---|---|---|

| Architecture | Pascal | RDNA 1.0 |

| Process Node | 16 nm | 7 nm |

| Transistors | 11,800 million | 10,300 million |

| Die Size | 471 mm² | 251 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 25.1M / mm² | 41.0M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 1582 MHz | 1243 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1683 MHz | 2040 MHz |

| Memory Size | 5 GB | 16 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR5X | GDDR6 |

| Memory Bus | 320 bit | 256 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 440.3 GB/s | 448.0 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 3200 | 2560 |

| TMUs | 200 | 160 |

| ROPs | 80 | 64 |

| FP32 Performance | 10.77 TFLOPS | 10.44 TFLOPS |

| FP16 Performance | 168.3 GFLOPS (1:64) | 20.89 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | 250 W | 205 W |

| Slot Width | Dual-slot | Quad-slot |

| Power Connectors | 2x 8-pin | None listed |

| Suggested PSU | 600 W | 550 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 1.0 x4 | Apple MPX |

| Display Outputs | No outputs | 1x HDMI 2.0b, 4x Thunderbolt |

| Dimensions | 267 mm (10.5 inches) | 305 mm (12 inches) |

| Release Date | 2018-02-11 | 2019-12-10 |